Amid warnings, woman faces trial over string of suits against judges

Former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at the Dirksen U.S. Federal Courthouse on June 28, 2012.

Former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at the Dirksen U.S. Federal Courthouse on June 28, 2012. (Brian Cassella)

Jason MeisnerTribune reporter

The trial of a follower of the so-called sovereign citizen movement is set to begin today in federal court in Chicago on charges she slapped huge liens on then-U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and other top federal court officials.

In a sign of the potential unpredictability of the proceedings, U.S. District Judge Michael J. Reagan, the third judge to be assigned to the case, warned Cherron Phillips that she would be removed from the courtroom if she was "disorderly, disruptive and disrespectful of the court.”

Phillips, 44, who also goes by the name of River Tali El Bey, faces charges that she targeted Fitzgerald, then-Chief Judge James Holderman and other federal judges, prosecutors and court officials by filing bogus liens in court on their homes in 2011 that sought tens of billions of dollars.

Prosecutors allege the liens came as retaliation after Phillips was barred from the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse and forbidden from filing documents on behalf of her brother, Devon, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to drug conspiracy charges.

Her trial is expected to feature a star-studded cast of witnesses with Fitzgerald, Holderman and U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow potentially taking the stand. It was the slaying of Lefkow's husband and mother in 2005 by a crazed litigant that led to a greater sensitivity for the security of federal officials in Chicago.

Phillips has professed in court that she doesn't recognize the federal system and has refused to cooperate with her court-appointed counsel. She has also filed a number of bizarre court filings reflective of the ideology of the sovereign citizen movement and insisted in court that U.S. citizens would not comprise a jury of her peers.

Her actions led U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur, who was originally assigned to her case, to call off her trial at the last minute a year ago, ruling that her "disturbing" legal filings proved her unfit to represent herself and that the proceedings "would swiftly end up with a mistrial."

After Shadur removed himself from the case last August, U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm of Peoria was assigned to take over, holding a lengthy hearing earlier this year in which Phillips was found mentally fit for trial.

Records show Reagan, who normally sits in federal court in East St. Louis, was assigned to the case in Mihm's place in May without explanation.